When a transmission control protocol (TCP) session is used across a latent network connection, excessive time may be consumed for TCP to reach an optimal transfer rate. This amount of time depends largely on the particular latencies and/or packet losses observed within the network.
This delay of an optimal transfer rate may be due to a slow start implementation in the TCP stack, where TCP slowly increases or scales its transfer rate based upon successful receipt of acknowledgments from a receiver. Also, conventional approaches may suffer from inefficient use of available bandwidth due to retransmission procedures when packet loss occurs.